Firth Park Academy in Sheffield has achieved the Inclusive School Award.
Live a remarkable life
Firth Park Academy is on a relentless mission to ensure that every student in their care receives the best opportunities possible to go on to live a remarkable life. With little interest in ticking boxes for the sake of inspection verdicts and receiving awards, the main focus is on having a genuine impact on the lives of their students.
Firth Park Academy is a large secondary academy in Sheffield with 1,153 students aged from 11 to 16 years. The school community is diverse with 61% of pupils of ethnic origin other than White British. The vast majority of pupils live in an area of high deprivation and high student mobility with over 60% of students classed as disadvantaged and 35% of pupils not speaking English as their first language. The academy also works incredibly hard to support students with additional needs, achieving significant success in their response to social, emotional and mental health challenges.
The academy is led by a warm and inspirational Principal who continues to teach GCSE Geography and Animal Care and is ever-present at the heart of the school. On the first day of our Assessor’s visit, he was available to meet them and share his vision and pride in the academy before he left to meet four new students at the academy, having already welcomed students beginning their initial teacher training. All staff spoke of his open approach and willingness to listen to all concerns, providing a constructive response.
‘Focused, passionate
and committed’ 
Academic results continue to improve year by year and the staff are extremely proud that 73% of students passed English GCSE at grade 4 or above in August 2022. Having steadily improved its local reputation, Firth Park Academy is now the first preference for 92% of students joining the academy in Year 7, compared with 42% in 2016. This success was recognised by Ofsted in February 2019 who confirmed that the academy continued to be good, describing the Senior Leadership Team as ‘focused, passionate and committed to continuous school improvement.’
Firth Park Academy became part of Academies Enterprise Trust (AET) in August 2013. The key values are on display around the building together with examples of student achievement:
• Be Unusually Brave
• Discover What’s Possible
• Push the Limits
• Be Big-hearted
Friendliness and warmth
Our Assessor was immediately impressed by the friendliness and warmth from all the staff, and their obvious enjoyment of working at the academy. The welcome began in the car park with the route for visitors clearly signposted. Inside the Reception area, friendly staff dealt with multiple issues with common sense and humour. This is not a place for artificial displays but of genuine enjoyment and knowledge for the academy community. A key factor that impressed our Assessor throughout the visit was the interest all members of staff had in knowing each student as an individual. This was reinforced by the SEND Governor who emphasised that “Staff at Firth Park Academy know every child really well and relentlessly focus on the development and achievement of every individual, personalising provision and support.”
Many staff our Assessor spoke to live in the local area and enjoy being fully involved. Teachers who grew up in the area want to give something back. “There is a real community and family feel,” the Director of Learning PSHE commented, who attended the academy previously as a student. Another local teacher spoke of seeing themselves in the young people they teach and fully understanding their context.
The key focus of the academy is to ensure that each student receives an education to prepare them for the next step, whether that is moving to the next year group or onto post-16 provision. The Vice Principal Achievement passionately emphasised the difference that the academy makes to students’ lives by supporting them to open doors to their future achievements, proudly asserting that “teaching has come on such a long way and makes such a difference for the students. They trust you to teach them well; they trust they will be helped to get everything they need for their future.” There is an exceptional level of debate and reflection concerning pedagogy, ensuring the curriculum is appropriate for the students and encourages them to achieve. This is equally recognised by the students who acknowledged that “teachers here actually care about what you are being taught.”
Inspire students
to enjoy learning
Improved attendance and a reduction in exclusions has been achieved largely through the investment in creating learning bases to offer a personalised approach for over sixty students who find mainstream lessons challenging. With needs including autism, heightened anxiety, learning difficulties and inability to regulate emotional responses, the commitment of the Principal and the whole Trust has resulted in a high level of staffing and joint problem-solving to remove all barriers, including the provision of transport and sourcing alternative placements.
Every opportunity is taken to inspire students to enjoy their learning, make progress and raise their aspirations including an exceptional range of enrichment opportunities. Students who have benefited from the National Tutoring Programme have shared their success on the DfE Twitter feed whilst the daily realities at Firth Park Academy are chronicled in CBBC’s Our School. The academy was amongst the first in the county to fully implement the best practice Gatsby benchmarks of Good Career Guidance. Staff are committed to making learning exciting and achievable. Over sixty students attend English and Maths classes on Saturday mornings whilst holiday schools for Year 6 to experience secondary lessons in English, Maths and Science were attended by 90 students. A longstanding member of staff described how “the fabric of the school has changed wholesale in the last decade.”
Find out more about the IQM Inclusive School Award
If your school is interested in obtaining the IQM Inclusive School Award or you wish to talk to a member of the IQM team please telephone:
028 7127 7857 (9.00 am to 5.00 pm)
or email: [email protected] for further details.
Want more information on the IQM Award? Click here to request your free IQM information pack